Restructuration de l’appareil productif local, articulations spatio-temporelles, identité et capacité collective d’agir

The industrial restructuring of the Provence mining country (France) represents a complex transition during which two time-and-space systems have coexisted and interacted for 25 years, the first being associated with the declining mining industry, the second with the new and expanding micro-electronics industry. For many years, dominated by the mine, local society remained stable and integrated according to the old industry’s continuity, rhythm and time, whereas now, it is on its way to fragmentation, destabilization and disintegration as discontinuity, short duration, erratic processes and the variety of time-and-space associated with micro-electronics take over. By analyzing some of the effects of the coexistence and tensions between the two systems, we discover in fact another source of tension, the one that exists between a local economic efficiency, a local social identity and a local collective ability to act.